by William Cain
Looking at him calmly, she says, “Enjoy the nice, crisp evening air. Oh, and that stuff about not worrying and I’m not going to hurt you. I lied.”
She walks away, gets into his car, and leaves.
◆◆◆
Anthony Spadaro is really relieved that the weather has let up because he is sick and tired of winter. He’s finished eating a nighttime snack in the kitchen, decides to head back upstairs and get some rest, maybe watch a few programs. It’s a big day tomorrow.
The doorbell rings, his housemaid and butler have gone to their rooms, so he decides to answer the door himself. When he arrives there, he swings it open and finds that it’s empty. No one is there. He steps out a few feet to find out if perhaps someone is going to another door of the house. As he begins to call out, he’s hit in the back of the head and he collapses.
When he wakes, he finds that he’s inside a small, dingy room lying on a little twin bed. Sitting at a table in front of him is Biggie Battaglia. And he doesn’t look happy.
“Good evening, Anthony, I’m glad you could make it. Why don’t you take a seat? I know that mattress isn’t very comfortable.”
Anthony rises to his feet warily and, staring at Biggie, he takes the seat across from him at the table. They look suspiciously into each other’s eyes.
“Take off your clothes,” Biggie says.
Anthony stares at him, “What for?”
Biggie slaps him as hard as he can from a seated position and screams, “You know what for! Take your clothes off!” He intends to humiliate him before they go to the next level.
Anthony looks at Biggie disgustedly, “Go fuck yourself. I’m not doing that.”
Biggie grins at him in a sinister fashion he’s kind of perfected over the years, “You’re going to do exactly what I tell you to do.”
Biggie pulls out his gun, points it directly at Anthony’s face, and Anthony’s look tells Biggie that this pretentious stupid toad has never seen a barrel that big. When you have a gun pointed at you that close, that’s exactly the way it looks.
Anthony begins to take all of his clothes off, and, when he reaches his underwear, Biggie stops him, “Leave those on.”
Biggie reaches to the wall behind him and knocks a couple times. A door opens, revealing a room behind them, and a figure stands there, framed by the dark doorway.
It’s a large man, and as he steps from the door towards them, Anthony sees a blinking machine in the middle of the room. It looks like an operating table with arms and lights blinking. Anthony is confused, and that’s not good, and he knows it.
Michael looks at Anthony and says,
“That’s Junior.”
◆◆◆
Gen steps into the room on the ground floor of the Glencoe Mansion and reflects. It’s been a long road, and it’s not over yet. Elsie’s murderer is out there somewhere. When he finds that person, Spadaro’s grisly death will pale. That person will be the definition of brutality, the wrong end. Each day is sad for Gen. What polar opposites he can be. One day he’s a ruthless killer. The next day he’s a sad widower.
As he’s staring into space, the door opens and his nephew Vincent walks in. They embrace each other warmly, smiling, and when they break, they look at each other.
“How’s retirement, Uncle Gen?”
“I’m still waiting for it to begin,” Gen replies, laughing sadly, softly.
Vincent believes his uncle’s been dwelling moodily. His eyes are wet. “It will end soon. Soon you will know.”
“I have a feeling, Vincent, a premonition I will know very soon.”
“Then the killing ends?” Vincent asks.
“Then the killing ends, yes,” Gen replies, adding, “I know it’s been hard on you. All these sanctioned hits. My behavior. The violence. I know it’s not good for business.”
“You’re not a man we say no to. The Family supports you, even though it weakens us to make your case with the other Families here in Chicago. I’m glad that you’ll know soon.”
His nephew places his hand on Gen’s shoulder, with the feelings men share for each other, and Gen drops his head a little,
“I miss her, Vincent.”
Chapter 20 Love and Lies
April 30th
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. Warren Buffett
Frank pulls up to 100 Asheville Court and hops out of his rental car. Reflecting on the past few days with Adelaide, he breaks into a smile. The two of them are becoming closer, and he can hardly believe it. Last night they shared a meal together and talked about their future. Addie knows that Frank doesn’t want to leave New York City because of Frannie. And Frank knows that Adelaide doesn’t want to leave Asheville because of her career. Regardless of their time constraints, they’re making room for each other, and he doesn’t see that coming to an end.
Each of them talked about their past a lot and discussed experiences of prior relationships, especially the one with Frédérica. There are a lot of things that each one wants to avoid, like deceit, mistrust, the boredom of a stale relationship, and long spans of time without seeing each other.
They talked about children again. Frank remembers having raised Frannie and he told her of the commitment. A child can bring a lot of happiness into your home, and a child can also bring exhaustion into the same space. It changes a relationship. Instead of living for each other, the couple will live for the child first, each one of them becoming secondary. Adelaide tells Frank that she’s given this a lot of thought and that she would like to try to have a child even this late in life. She wants it all.
Frank reaches the sergeant’s desk after entering the building and asks to see Detective Henson. The man behind the desk gives Frank the once over, breaks into a smile, and then stretches his hand out, “I am Sergeant Maxwell, and I think your name is Frank, am I right?”
“Is everyone here a detective?” Frank says, laughing. “I can’t get one by any of you guys.”
The desk sergeant tells Frank, “It goes with the territory. Come on, I’ll take you to Addie myself.” He yells over his shoulder, “Hey, Lenny, watch the desk. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
As they approach her desk, Addie looks up from her paperwork and breaks into a smile. She’s got the folder of the Elsie Battaglia case on her desk, and Frank’s mother’s picture is on top. The file is considerably larger than it was months ago, and Frank can see that there’s a lot of material there. Still, no one has been arrested for her death. Addie stands up, and when Frank is deposited by the desk sergeant, she hugs him and says, “Thanks, Maxwell.” Looking at Frank, she tells him, “Take a seat and let’s talk for a minute.”
Frank raises his eyebrows and, sitting, replies, “This must be serious. Sure, let’s talk.”
Frank begins first and he tells Abby, “I have been leaning in the direction that my mother is not in a relationship with Ken Jones, but now I’m not so sure. I’m thinking about what I saw recently, and it’s making me think that everything she’s telling me is true. I saw them together. And she knows so much about this guy.”
Addie tells him as candidly as she can when she begins, “Agent Juvieux, from the FBI, has told me what he knows about Reggi and Ken. He’s had Ken Jones, otherwise known as Gennarro Battaglia, under surveillance for months,” she pauses to let this sink in and adds, “Frank, there is no relationship between your mother and Ken Jones. He hasn’t even met her. He’s a retired mobster. His wife’s murder took place in July. And it’s either at the hands of Ken Jones or another gangster from Chicago.”
Frank is confused, “He hasn’t even met her? Then let me tell you what I just saw. Not only does she know where he lives. She knows what his house looks like. She knows what the inside looks like. She knows there’s an elevator in his house. She knows he has an atrium in the house. She knows the car he drives. She knows what he looks like. And he came to her house when I was there. I met him for the first time and when he saw my mother, the two of them acte
d like any couple would act. Hugging each other, making small talk with each other, smiling at each other, addressing each other by first name.”
Before Addie can speak, and she does look perplexed, Frank tells her more, “My mother told me she began seeing him a couple months after his wife died, and she doesn’t believe she was murdered, which is odd. They’ve taken trips to Wyoming, they’ve gone to Florida, and they’ve taken trips on his yacht. She’s talked to his kids. He’s been to rehab. He left rehab. He went back to rehab. They’ve been on junkets to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and New York City. They’ve taken a cruise together and stayed in the penthouse suite. They dined with the captain every night. Adelaide, you just can’t make this stuff up.”
Addie is really baffled.
Her case file is open on top of her desk, and Frank looks over at it, “Why do you have a picture of my mother?”
Addie replies that she was identified by an FBI agent as a person who was near Ken Jones’s home on the day of the murder. “That’s how we found your mom. She’s going through pictures of people who live in the area and trying to find a person she saw that day.”
Frank thinks out loud, “You say they’re not in a relationship and I think differently. Maybe this Agent Juvieux doesn’t know everything. Maybe Ken Jones isn’t entirely truthful.”
The two of them stare at one another for a moment, each one’s confounded, and Addie states bluntly, “Someone is lying. Once we find out who’s lying, we will know who the killer is.”
◆◆◆
Sergeant Maxwell returns and in tow is Helen Richter, and she doesn’t look very happy.
“Helen, what’s wrong?” Addie asks.
“Well, for one,” Helen says, “I’m sick of looking at mugshots.” Looking over at Frank, she asks, smiling slyly as best she can, “Is this your betrothed?”
Addie smiles back and replies, “Yes, this is Frank. Frank Thomas, meet Helen Richter.”
Helen holds out her hand and Frank takes it. “Hello, you are the famous Helen Richter. Addie has told me a lot about you.” Frank registers that he may have said the wrong thing. Quickly, he adds, “and it’s all good.”
Helen looks over at Addie and scolds her comically, “Are you telling stories out of school again?” The two of them share a little laugh.
Looking back at Frank, Helen tells him, “You are the one that stole her heart.”
Frank adds, “It wasn’t easy,” looking askance at Addie.
Helen replies, placing her hand on his shoulder, patting it, “Nothing really good is ever easy.”
Addie cuts in, “I’d like you to take a look at photos from Heritage Hills, of their members, we’re running out of options.”
Helen looks down at Addie’s desk, spots the picture lying on top and answers, “Why? You already found her, the friendly woman,” as they’ve come to call her. “Why didn’t you reach out to me?”
Addie is puzzled again, “What?”
“That’s her, how did you know? Just look at the chin, the nose, and the cheekbones.”
“That’s her.”
Addie finds herself staring at the picture, and her thoughts turn to a multitude of detective things that detectives think.
◆◆◆
“Anyway,” Helen adds, “I just came by to tell you that I’m leaving the country. It’s time for me to take a short break.”
Addie laments, “I know. We’ve talked about it. I know you have to go. Is everything tidied up?” They give each other a conspiratorial look.
Then Helen tells her, “Yes, I gave my house plants to my neighbor and canceled my heat, I broke up with my boyfriend Ulrich, and I’m pretty sure he’s halfway to Minsk by now.” She breaks into a laugh. Translation: I didn’t kill him and thank you for telling me about him.
Addie tells her that she and Frank were just discussing his mother and Ken Jones and that they are in the dark on this.
Addie adds, “Frank thinks they’re in a relationship. And David Juvieux, the FBI agent, says no. At first glance one would think that the agent is correct because he watches Jones’s every move, but Frank has very convincing arguments.”
Helen mulls this over a while and comes to a decision, “Why don’t you ask Ken Jones himself?”
Addie tells her, “That’s exactly what I’m going to do now, good idea.”
As she begins to punch in Gen’s private cell, the man magically appears before her. He’s with Sergeant Maxwell, who tells her, “Detective, Mr. Battaglia is here to see you. FYI, it’s getting crowded in here. Why don’t you go to a conference room.”
Addie looks at Battaglia, who carries a look of importance with some papers in his hands. She asks him if he’s clairvoyant, because she was just beginning to call him. She has a question for him. Helen and Frank are silently taking this in, looking sideways at each other.
Addie hooks her fingers at the group and says, “Follow me.” After a short walk they file into an interrogation room.
When they’re all seated, Addie looks at Gen and says, “I talked to you and told you about Reggi Thomas and you didn’t deny it.”
Battaglia replies, “Addie, I am a patient and careful man. Experience has taught me to think and not react. When you told me about Reggi Thomas, the first thing I did was a background check on her to find out as much as I can.”
Frank interjects, “You ran a background check on my mother?”
Gen takes a moment, looks at him, and says, “I thought I remembered you. We met last week, right?”
Frank tells him yes.
“You’re Reggi Thomas’s kid.”
Frank tells him yes again.
Gen looks over to Addie and asks, “Why is he here?”
Addie replies, “This is Frank, he’s my fiancé.”
Battaglia is blown away. “This is Frank? Your fiancé? Frank Thomas. This is the Frank from New York?” and he puts it all together. “Oh, man. Why didn’t I see this? You’re Reggi Thomas’s son,” he says, looking at Frank, “and you’re engaged to marry Addie.”
Helen looks at Battaglia, “Small world, isn’t it?”
◆◆◆
After they’ve all calmed down from the revelations, Addie wants to ask Gen about Reggi Thomas, but before she can begin, Gen stops her. “The background check came back, and I have to tell you I have a pretty good picture about Reggi Thomas and her family. I also have to tell you that I am pretty ticked off. I really didn’t get anything solid on the background check because it didn’t include her medical history. The medical history takes a longer time to assemble because it’s difficult to obtain and skirt the confidentiality issues, grease people’s palms.”
Addie says, “And?”
“Her medical history came in this morning so I stopped by to pick it up since I was in Chicago. That’s why I’m here. I just landed, and I wanted to come here and talk to you about what I found.”
Continuing, “Do you want to hear something interesting? It says in the work-up of her medical history that during her first marriage, she was arrested. Apparently, they had a physical argument earlier that day. That night when her husband was sleeping, she attacked him, and the Memphis Police arrested her. I also found out why this was not included in her regular arrest records. According to her plea deal, she was placed under the care of a psychiatrist to help resolve her mental issues. She spent a little over six months in an institution. Her records were sealed. The arrest record should arrive tomorrow. I’ll receive it by email.”
Frank’s eyes are wide; now he knows where his mother was those six months many, many years ago.
Addie can read Gen’s thoughts, and they are very dark. And those thoughts are about Reggi Thomas.
She’s also wondering what Gen was doing at Reggi Thomas’s home. If he doesn’t know her, why did he go there? Or does he know her?
Frank looks at Battaglia and asks, “Are you in a relationship with my mother or not?”
Battaglia looks at each member of the group t
here and settles his eyes on Frank, “Your mother’s a beautiful woman. I enjoyed talking with her. You saw, you were there,” he pauses and looks openly toward Frank, one man to another, bluntly telling him, “The first time I met her was last Thursday, the same day I met you for the first time.”
Frank is thunderstruck. Addie let’s all this sink in. Then she tells the group that she and Frank, with FBI Agent David Juvieux, need to go see Reggi Thomas to find out if she is involved in any way in the murder of Elsie Battaglia.
Addie begins to form an idea in her mind that Reggi Thomas is mentally ill.
She looks at Frank.
He wears the heavy face of a man much older.
She is sad.
She is worried.
She loves him.
Chapter 21 Edwin
May Day
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.
- Shakespeare
Reggi had recounted to Charlotte and Edwin the luxurious trips with Ken; exclusive lodging, butler service, dining with dignitaries…it goes on forever. And then there’s his vast holdings in real estate. It amounts to a small country! This man Ken Jones is super wealthy. How could Reggi have been so lucky? Maybe she deserves it after her husband Joseph’s terrible illness and all the care she gave him over those two years. It must have been emotionally draining. The heavens have smiled on her mom—Charlotte is sure of it.
It doesn’t bother them that they haven’t met Reggi’s soon-to-be husband. They wake up every day hoping today will be the day Ken marries him. And the sooner the better, because what will happen if he dies before they’re married? Then Charlotte and her husband lose everything. Her trophy wife days would be over. Her use for her older husband Edwin would become a thing of the past. They throw negative thoughts like that out of their minds and focus on planning for a bright, wealthy future.
Edwin and Charlotte are excited about today. Edwin’s going to surprise his soon-to-be father-in-law and pay a visit to him. He wants to meet him, and Charlotte agreed that he should. He plans to ring his door at 9 am, and he hopes he’ll be home and not playing golf or something. Since Edwin retired, he’s had little to do except lose more than ninety percent of his fortune chasing unrealistic dreams. But he was bored. Now the prospect of being directly related to a billionaire like Ken Jones has filled him with hope and plans for the future. He almost can’t believe his luck, and Charlotte has been giving him more attention than she has in years.